Rick Moen via luv-talk wrote:
Quoting Trent W. Buck (trentbuck@gmail.com):
It's substantiable, see e.g.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_controversy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crucifix
Well, sure, but it's very much a Not Nice, decidedly catty thing to say.
I usually reserve my characterisation of Christianity as a 'Middle-Eastern death cult' for sideways slaps delivered onto dumbasses already concentrated on ranting about how Muslims are inherently a threat and suspect of being terrorists, etc.
Yes, I quite understood that was where you were coming from, though it may have escaped some other audience members. :-)
It produces a bracing effect when I nod and say 'Sure, we of course need to expel all members of Middle-Eastern death cults. Let's start with the Lutherans.'
Ah well, that's a little bit more of a stretch -- like describing Zen as Indic instead of Chinese. (Luther were from the HRE, i.e. a Teuton; Based on descriptions of his followers I assumed Calvin was a Gael, but apparently he was a Gaul. (Cheerfully using the wrong demonyms for bonus chuckles.))